Issue(s): Haunt of Horror #5 (Satana story only)
Cover Date: Jan 75
Title: "If this be Hell...?"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
George Evans - Penciler
George Evans - Inker

Review/plot:
This is the story where Satana learns that her father Satan was really behind the Miles Gorney plotline that constituted the majority of her appearances to date. I highly doubt it was intended all along that Miles Gorney was really Satan, but Claremont at least provides a wrap-up and a somewhat reasonable explanation for what's been going on (i still think that Satan's plan actually set in motion the thing he was trying to avoid, namely the activation of Satana's human side, but that was possibly intentional irony although i would have expected Claremont to have spelled it out more clearly).

The story starts with Satana interrogating and then sucking the soul from a Walter Dean. It's not at all clear from this story who Dean is or why Satana thinks that he'll know about Miles Gorney. It's only said that Satana has been hunting his mates and has now caught up with him.

Satana learns nothing from Dean.

But that's ok because Gorney sends Satana a message, in the form of the hand of Mike Heron, the ex-priest from Claremont's text piece last issue. Satana had given Heron the Ring of Azshiran, which was supposed to protect him from any demon born of Satan.

The hand is delivered by a devil called Agathon the Tempter, who surrounds himself with female warriors.

Agathon is able to subdue Satana and bring her to Gorney.

Gorney simultaneously tries to fight Satana and recruit her to his ranks in a rebellion against her father. She refuses, but also reveals that she now knows that Gorney is really Satan based on the fact that 1) only Satan would be powerful enough to defy the Ring of Azshiran and 2) the devil Agathon was a coward that would never join a rebellion.

Satana's refusal to join the fake rebellion isn't enough for Satan though, so he forces her to drain the soul of the dying Mike Heron.

This actually makes sense; the subtext here - stated in this issue's lettercol - is that Daimon Hellstrom's recent renewed resistance to his father has also made Satan distrust his sister, so the real test isn't refusing to join with another demon lord, but proving that she has no affinity for humanity. However, Satana has indeed been starting to become more human (this was pretty much established only in Claremont's text piece in issue #4, but still), so she refuses to take Heron's soul, and Satan bans her from Hell.

This potentially sets up a new status quo for Satana where instead of trying to find her way back to Hell as she was in most of her previous appearances, she would have been learning more about humanity and getting in touch with her human side. And it might have been done well under Claremont. But this is the last issue of Haunt of Horror, and while Satana might have survived by jumping to another b&w magazine, like maybe back to Vampire Tales, she pretty much goes into limbo at this point. She has a guest appearance in her brother's series, and then two scattered one-shot stories before she is killed off in Marvel Team-Up.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• A brief recap covers Vampire Tales #2, Vampire Tales #3, and the previous arc in Haunt of Horror.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Essential Marvel Horror vol. 1

Is it just me or is Miles Gorney drawn to resemble 70's-era Stan Lee?